Queens of the Stone Age drop one of the more unsettling music videos of this year, featuring loads of stuffed animals, a toothed piano, and a vampire woman that’s gonna be haunting your nightmares for the next several weeks. Props to directors Kii Arens and Jason Trucco.

Instrumental stoner rock outftit Stallone has a new EP that came out this past October. If this kinda music is up your alley, you may already be familiar with guitarist Juan Montoya due to his contributions to the band Torche on albums like Meanderthal. However, since leaving the band, it seems Stallone has become a primary focus, and it shows in the production and songwriting quality, which has greatly improved since the last EP I heard from these guys.

The Massachusetts-based metal band Elder has a new EP out featuring two crushing new tracks called “Spires Burn” and “Release.” They clock in at 10 and 12 minutes respectively, so don’t think you’re getting shortchanged with this EP. Both songs feature a pretty retro take on stoner metal, with some clear Black Sabbath influences in the vocals and a slow, heavy instrumental backing. The doom-influenced guitar and bass riffs, often the most important aspect of this style of music, are definitely there on both of these tracks, chugging away with propulsive fervor.

Stream both of the tracks above via Youtube, and purchase the new EP on vinyl from Armageddon Shop.

I dunno if it’s the eerie organ, heavy riffs, or the devilish lyrics, but this new Greenleaf track just has me thinking of all this cult imagery: Robes, candles. Everything! Eh, it’s probably a combination of all three.

Greenleaf hails from Sweden, and Nest of Vipers is the group’s fourth full-length album. While they’re not the heaviest band on the block, they don’t try to be, shooting for a more traditional, dark, and moody style of stoner rock. The sounds certainly come from a time when the lines separating psych rock, stoner rock, and doom metal were less bold.

Although it’s probably safe to say that sludge metal quartet Torche has been heading in a progressively more pop-inflected direction throughout the past few years, that’s not to say that they have sacrificed ambition as a result. On “Reverse Inverted,” the second track to drop from the band’s upcoming LP, the band proves this by combining frontman Steve Brooks’ catchy vocal approach with riffs that experiment with unconventional time signatures. One of the track’s strongest moments comes with the closing riff, which sees the band lock into a relentlessly engaging groove, then introduce a particularly euphoric guitar melody that carries the song to a close.

You heard “Kicking,” and now we have “Reverse Inverted,” which you can hear above. Look forward to an April 24 release date for Torche’s third album, Harmonicraft, via Volcom.